Postgame Quotes - April 22, 2012

Pistons vs Raptors

(On our defense struggle tonight): “I guess it’s hard to describe, it’s either good defense or just some offensive struggles for both teams. Not great rhythm, but just kind of a grind it out game. Both teams are obviously in very similar situations; they have almost identical records, both teams are not going to the playoffs. Those games (with two teams in a similar situation) go either one of two ways, either it’s 130 to 126 or it’s this and we will take this. You know it was good to get to the free-throw line. The last couple games we hadn’t really gotten to the line and tonight we did enough to get the win.”

(On intending to foul on the last play): “Yeah well that is part of it and then you know we got flared and we got to be ready to switch out on that. But it’s a lot of learning and teaching points. This time at least we didn’t have to learn it going into overtime. Yes we wanted to foul, plus we had a foul to give. So it is just another thing to log and continue to work on. When we start next year we are going to have a lot of different special situations, both good and bad that we incorporate into everything we do.”

(On tonight’s win): “It came down to the team that made the winning plays at the end of the game. Obviously the game was a pretty ugly game, but we just stuck it out and tried to be more persistent than they were.”
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(On his fourth quarter): “I was getting to my spots, getting my and-ones, getting to the line a little bit, so it was a little bit of everything. I just tried to make the right plays and score the ball when I had the chance to.”

(On making shots after being fouled): “When you’re in a position to draw the contact you just want to focus on the shot and not just toss it up there. You already know you have at least two coming so you might as well try to make the shot while you’re attempting it.”

(On winning games late in the season): “Anytime you can win and get any kind of positive feel from winning, there’s value in that. Even though you might not make the playoffs you still want to grind it out to the very end and take every game like it’s your last. That’s what playoff teams do and that’s how you develop into a playoff team, by taking every game one at a time.”

(On defense): "That was one of those end-of-the-season, two teams going no where kind of games today. Thirty-seven percent to 36 percent (shooting). I was really impressed with our guys. They came in with a defensive focus. That's what we worked on the past couple of days. We have to have something to hang our hats on. You don't have to have a lot of steals to be a good defender."

(On evaluating role players late in game): "Someone set a hellacious screen which is a great legal screen. I want to look at the last shot with Alan (Anderson). He came in and made a good play so he was driving to the basket. LK (Kleiza) had a wide open look to tie and take it to overtime. That's all you can ask for."

(On not playing DeMar DeRozan in the fourth quarter): "I just wanted to see Alan (Anderson). DeMar (DeRozan) gave us everything. He did an excellent job. Those guys hung tough and didn't play at all in the third and DeMar played the whole third just to give everybody some rotation."